Analysis Of Case Study: How Much Should A New CEO Shake Things Up
In “Case Study: How Much Should a New CEO Shake Things Up?” by Paul M. Healy, Sena Aslan has recently been hired as the new CEO of FDM Turkey to orchestrate organisational changes to increase profits and improve the company overall. During the process, she has been criticised both positively and negatively, but more in the latter. Some of her recent changes include reassessing the branch’s tight structure, laying off a large portion of the company’s valued employees, and restructuring the corporate ladder. Through her decisions to change the organisation of FDM, Sena has clearly lost sight of a major importance in companies — employee satisfaction. Sena must drastically slow the pace of her plans or she may not have any employees left to organise.
Throughout the case study, Sena has shown on multiple occasions that she lacks important values in order to be a “Level 5 Executive Leader”. A Level 5 Executive Leader is one who “builds enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will”. In the case study, as explained later, Sena has shown that she does not build greatness, does not have much personal humility, or practice professional will. For example, when she visits a branch to speak with the manager and a couple employees, a teller nervously asks, “Are we going to lose our jobs?”. When Sena heard this, she immediately mentioned that no layoffs were planned; however, the entirety of the case study clearly states that this is not the truth. When describing all that Sena has completed thus far, Healy mentions that she has fired about 40% of FDM’s valued senior managers in order to hire new talent. While this approach will help in some in some aspects of the bank, having such a large turnover rate is becoming increasingly worrisome to the rest of the employees — and understandably, at that. While it may be easy to consider, “She’s only letting higher ups go, ” it is easier to think, “If she is letting people of such importance go so easily, what’s to stop her from firing someone as replaceable as a bank teller?”
Any employee who is stressed about possibly being fired will inevitably become uninterested and unhappy each time they come to work. Dissatisfied employees make for low profits, a stagnant or declining business, and uncomfortable work conditions. If Sena continues with these quick, severe changes, she may have even higher employee turnover rates than anticipated. Sena’s close coworkers and friends express their concerns for her changes, but she does not seem willing to consider their feedback. Her good friend, Ahmet Ozan, CFO of FDM, is described as having been with the bank for decades and has supported her on the changes since day one; however, his opinions of them are shifting quickly. Ahmet brings up that “he [Erkan Malas, COO at FDM] might have a point…his team will need to work 24 hours a day to make this happen on the timetable you’re suggesting”.
Ahmet has supported Sena on her organisational shifts and has even invested time into helping her with one of her ideas — a banking kiosk. He mentions that the kiosk may not even be something of interest to the customers. After hearing such cautious feedback from a close coworker and friend, most people would take a step back to find a different perspective on the issue. Instead, Sena quickly responds with “I really value your opinion…and these are all good questions…but the point of the pilot is to answer them”. Though she did address his concerns in a thoughtful, polite manner, the overall intention of her response was to convey that she is going to stick to her plans regardless of his concerns or the concerns of the COO. One large disadvantage of her plans is confusion — confusion amongst higher ups, coworkers, and employees. While Sena was visiting the branch, Meryem, the branch manager, implied that the changes were being made far too quickly for employees to have a smooth transition. Meryem clearly says to Sena that the speed of her changes is affecting everyone negatively in the branch, and describes how stressful the situation truly is. Rather than addressing her concerns about the stress, Sena rudely dismisses the comment and asks to speak with the tellers. Here, she is showing that she does not have compassion for the employee’s adjustment struggles. For a CEO to not show empathy for her employees, it truly shows that she views them simply as people beneath her who are strictly there to help run the company. Sena has shown on multiple occasions that whatever feedback or advice friends, coworkers, and employees give to her that she simply will not listen and she knows better.
In another instance, Deniz, Sena’s friend, finds her struggling with what Erkan said. She mentions to him that she’s afraid that if slows or alters her approach, the rest of the company will consider it a second guess at her plans and come off as being a weak leader. Despite speaking with Deniz about possibly slowing down, she continues with her current organisational changes. When a leader, or anyone for that matter, does not take others’ perspectives and ideas, it shows that they believe they know what is best and are not willing to learn from others. While Sena chooses to stick to her efforts, she runs the risk of offending her coworkers with her arrogance. Though Sena is actively upsetting the majority of the bank, she does seem to have a good concept of customer satisfaction. While many view customer satisfaction as the main importance of a business, they cannot run smoothly without satisfied employees. During Sena’s plans, she mentions that she’d like to focus her efforts on having a larger online presence rather than expanding the branches. She believes that customers do not want to visit a bank branch but be able to deposit checks, check their balance, speak with representatives, and countless other features over the phone or online. Rather than choosing to rearrange employees in order to push for a greater online presence, she should create a more welcoming, friendly bank environment. The older generation is used to visiting a physical branch location to complete all of their banking necessities, so she is likely to lose customers to other banks that offer a pleasant in-person experience rather than over the phone or on a kiosk screen.
On the other hand, the younger generation would prefer to have everything completed over the phone or online. Though a greater online presence does seem to be the better option for the bank’s future, it could raise new issues such as security, hiring more employees, and firing those in the current branches. When Sena is speaking with Sophie Renou, a lifelong friend and board member at FDM’s French parent company, she mentions the online banking approach and how other banks were already doing it. She also brings up that she wants to be more innovative with a kiosk concept that can be set up through convenient locations such as supermarkets and electronic stores. By focusing this intently on her customers, Sena is actively showing that she does care for the company and truly wants the best for it. After all, she was brought on to arrange changes and create a higher demand for FDM. Though her customer service intentions may be good, she does not focus enough on her company and each the individual who makes it run smoothly everyday. Customer service may be everything to someone who cares solely about the business aspect of the company, but employee satisfaction and comfortability is undoubtedly the basis for a successful business. Sena needs to slow the pace of FDM or she may not have any customers left to satisfy. Throughout her changes, Sena’s main structural shift was to switch out the more mature employees for fresher, younger candidates. Employees often expect to adapt to a new CEO or higher up, but very rarely do they expect to be fired, especially at such a wide scale. While Sena’s intentions may be to drive the company into the future and tend to a younger audience, she is quickly leaving behind a huge portion of the population.
One advantage of hiring younger staff is to bring more tech-savvy individuals on board. One of Sena’s goals for restructuring was to add kiosks and have a larger online presence. With a younger staff, they will likely have a firm grasp on most of the concepts already and will not need much training. On the other hand, a large disadvantage of firing more mature staff to hire younger staff is creating uneasiness in the workplace. As previously mentioned, Sena has already committed countless layoffs, totally nearly half of the long-tenured staff. When employees notice that others are being let go so quickly and so often, it leaves them wondering if their job is secure. Eventually, they will begin looking elsewhere for work and likely quit for a more secure career. If Sena does not take a new perspective of the adjustment issues among FDM, she will quickly lose more employees than she had originally planned to let go. “‘You know, Zehra, we all need to slow down sometimes’”. Sena says to her daughter after spending hours on the Tilt-A-Whirl. Though Sena has not physically been on the ride, her mind sure is spinning as if she was. Sena has been thrown back and forth between the varying opinions of her coworkers, generally receiving an overwhelming consensus of disapproval for her current plans. She truly believes that she is doing what is best for her company and her customers, but she is all too willing to lose so many long-tenured employees in the process. Her attempt at reorganising has caused a plethora of layoffs, dissatisfied employees and coworkers, and a general feeling of uneasiness amongst FDM.
Overall, Sena seems uninterested in any of her employees’ adjustment struggles and chooses to move forward with her changes as planned. She may have good command skills, but she certainly lacks empathy and the ability to accept criticism. Sena must change the pace of her organisational changes or she will inevitably change the dynamic of FDM for the worse.
